NEW: RI Ice Cream Shop Closes Location After Employees Were “Verbally Abused” - Repeatedly
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
After an ice cream shop in Rhode Island said in June it was considering closing for the summer, saying its young staff has been subject to "disrespectful and abusive" behavior from customers -- it announced it is now shuttering one of its locations.
In June, Brickley's -- with locations in Narragansett and Wakefield -- said that some customers have been refusing to wear masks and berating employees who ask them to do so.
Now, after the latest incident in Wakefield, according to Brickley's, they are closing that location.
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Brickley's posted the following on Tuesday:
"We had another incident that occurred at our Wakefield store this past Sunday. In summary, two men who were angry that they could not stay and eat their ice cream on our patio then argued with, swore at and verbally abused both our staff and that of our neighbor, BOL. When another patron spoke up and intervened in an attempt to help, one of the men became threatening to the patron and things almost came to blows. This is unacceptable and is becoming unsafe for both our staff and customers. We have a limited and young staff at our Wakefield store and must keep them safe.
The situation with our patio will not change this season. We have limited space and must maintain the patio for those customers waiting for their orders. If customers stay to eat their ice cream on the patio, we will quickly have an unsafe situation with too many people congregating (without masks) while other customers wait for their orders. We just do not have the space.
Along with our staff, we have been discussing our options and have made the very difficult decision to close our Wakefield location for the season – immediately. We will move some staff to our Narragansett store. We have more staff in Narragansett, more room for customers to enjoy their ice cream as well as more senior staff that can help mitigate problems that may arise.
We so appreciate all of our local and dedicated Wakefield customers. We are so sorry to have to make this painful decision and look forward to serving you all again in Wakefield during the spring of 2021. In the mean time we hope you will come visit us in Narragansett (currently open Wed. thru Sundays).
Thank you."
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